Degree Work 2009.

These are some photographs of my degree show work, I graduated from University of Hertfordshire in June, 2009. My work is crochet based, and combines 'found' objects with ready mades and jewellery techniques to create unique pieces, the pieces are small and delicate, with intricate crochet lace. Crochet has become something of an obssession with me, I know people think of crochet as an old ladies medium, imagining chunky squares in hideous colour combinations, I want to rescue crochet from those stuffy and ugly images. All my works are in mono-tones and are all hand made. I combine decoupage, felt making, lace making and various jewellery making techniques to create intimate pieces suah as brooches, neck pieces and arm pieces, I also create hanging installations. My degree work is inspired by the Victorian era, and the notorious 'baby farmers', notably Amelia Dyer who was responsible for the deaths of at least 300 babies in her care, she murdered them by suffocation and threw the poor little mites into the Thames, she was caught eventually and hanged. She kept most of the baby clothes and these were stuffed in drawers and cupboards. This story moved me so much that I felt that the children needed to be remembered and some sort of monument should be created, the hanging installation was inspired by the idea of not only the loss of so many little lives but the waste of so much potential . The strands are crocheted lace pods containing beads, marbles, feathers, buttons, tags and the tea stained labels have an inventory of unworn baby clothes, for example; 'one pair of infant mittens-unworn' there are two strands containing these.

My influences are Victoriana, Memento Mori, Mourning jewellery, Taxidermy, Tim Burton and dark fairy tales.